Mark Cavendish filled one of the very few gaps on his palmarès when he showed a clean pair of heels to his rivals on the final straight at Utah Beach to claim his 27th stage victory at the Tour de France and with it his first yellow jersey.

"I'm so happy. I really wanted to win here today," Cavendish said. "The lads were incredble. Edvald [Boasson Hagen] did the most incredible turn at the end. He rode out of skin today. I'm so happy to do this for Dimension Data today. There's no better way to highlight the Quebeka charity.

"It's quite emotional. This is the only jersey in cycling I've not worn. I've had all three points jerseys, the worlds jerseys and the leaders jerseys in the Giro and the Vuelta and now this. I just wanted to win the stage and to wear this jersey is an honour. I've built my whole career on this race."

Well protected by his Dimension Data teammates coming into the final kilometre, where a strong crosswind was a complicating factor, Cavendish jumped onto Peter Sagan's wheel when Tinkoff's world champion accelerated from 200 metres out. As the heavily tipped Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) began to come through on Sagan's left, Cavendish went on the Slovak's right and arrowed clear of his rivals, crossing the line two bike lengths ahead of Kittel, with Sagan third and Lotto-Soudal's André Greipel in fourth.

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The success, which was Cavendish's first major objective for the season before he targets an Olympic medal in Rio de Janeiro and a second world road title in Qatar in October, was also the first time the Manxman had beaten Kittel in a head-to-head sprint and he could have chosen no better moment to put an end to that hoodoo as well as to suggestions that he's past his best.

As is always the case, the Tour's opening stage was a nervy affair in parts and saw several riders hit the deck. The most notable was two-time champion Alberto Contador, who went down hard after BMC's Brent Bookwalter lost control coming out of a roundabout at high speed, the impact also taking down Sky's Luke Rowe. Although the Spaniard suffered cuts and grazes to his back and right shoulder, he remounted quickly and finished in the pack led in by Cavendish.

"I'm bruised all down along my right side from my ankle up but at least I don't have to go home," Contador said. "Hopefully I can get through the coming days and recover before the mountains. There are some positions where my shoulder gives me some doubts but I want to be optimistic and recover. I was well placed [at the time of the crash]. I came into the corner, there was a traffic island and my front wheel hit it and then I hit the curb with my back."

There was more drama as the bunch sprint began to open up. Michael Morkov, the leadout man for Katusha sprinter Alexander Kristoff appeared to clip the foot of a barrier and catapulted into the riders following in the wake of the sprinters. Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) and Sky's Geraint Thomas were among those who went down as a result.

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How it unfolded

The stage began in far less frenetic fashion. Christian Prudhomme had barely finished flourishing the flag to signal the start of racing when Bora-Argon 18's Jan Barta and Paul Voss jumped away and were quickly joined by Leigh Howard (IAM Cycling). Only two riders reacted in the bunch, Alex Howes (Cannondale) and Anthony Delapace (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) giving chase as the peloton sat up and allowed the quintet to go on their way.

With two fourth-category climbs coming early on, the leading trio didn't ease up to allow Howes and Delaplace into the first contest for the King of the Mountains jersey. Approaching the climbs, the Bora duo made their numerical advantage count. Barta delivered an initial thrust that Howard chased down, only to see Voss counter and go off on his own to take the single point available on the summit of the Côte d'Avraches and then the Côte des Falaises de Champeux.

In between the two climbs, Howes and Delaplace finally made contact with Barta and Howard, and the four finally became five when Voss eased off soon after taking the second KoM.

The lead group's advantage over the peloton, which had reached four and a half minutes early on, was trimmed back to around three following the two climbs as the GC teams readied for possible splits in the westerly wind blowing in off the English Channel.

Coming out of the feed zone halfway through the stage, a shift in the wind direction led to an injection of pace at the front of the peloton. A number of riders were caught out at the back of the peloton, although none of the favourites were among them.

It seemed that the main result of the acceleration was the break's lead being chopped back to less than a minute. However, it was as the peloton was beginning to settle down that Bookwalter, Contador and Rowe went down, the three of them landing on the concrete divide in the centre of the road with some force.

The rips in the Spaniard's jersey and his bloodied right shoulder were testament to the impact. However, initial reports suggested he hadn't sustained any fractures and it appeared that the most serious damage was to his right shoe, which he had to replace as Tinkoff's domestiques guided him back to the bunch.

Up ahead, Voss dropped back from the lead group before the intermediate sprint, which Howard won at a canter. Just 40-odd seconds later, Greipel was quickest of the sprinters, easing past compatriot Kittel coming up to the line, with Cavendish, Sagan and Byran Coquard (Direct Énergie) among those happy to follow close behind the two Germans.

With 57km to the finish, Delaplace and Howes cut loose from Barta and Howard. The pair's lead fluctuated between 10 and 35 seconds for the next 40km, the two riders cooperating well until Delaplace attempted to go away on his own with 18km left. Howes responded with a dig of his own a couple of kilometres later.

Usually, these attacks would have signaled the end of the breakaway, but the peloton was happy to let the two escapees hold centre stage until well inside the 10-kilometre banner. Finally, with 5km left, Etixx-Quickstep and Lotto-Soudal came to the front and swept past Howes and Delaplace.

As the sprinters' teams massed and Etixx and Lotto-Soudal vied for position on the front, Cavendish and a couple of his teammates managed to infiltrate the Etixx train, putting the Briton in an ideal position coming into the final kilometre. Once under the kilometre kite, no one team was able to impose itself, enabling lone gun Sagan to make an audacious bid for victory, only to see Cavendish fly by and take all of the spoils.